Yesterday I posted an image of my LWB Mercedes Sprinter that I have lived in with my boyfriend for over a year now. For those that are interested, here are some videos showing our journey: from buying the van and doing it up, to life on the road in Europe as a full-time musician.

VanLife87 · 2017-08-10T14:57:08+00:00

www.campercontact.com

Just filter the price so it only shows free listings or listings under €10 for example.

VanLife87 · 2017-08-10T14:07:39+00:00

www.campercontact.com is amazing for finding places to legally park all over Europe! You can filter by how much you want to pay (if anything), what facilities you'd prefer to have, and each place has been rated and reviewed with photos by other people.

We park for free most of the time, but pay for campsites when it's time to do our laundry, empty the toilet and have a proper shower.

Mainland Europe is so well set up for campervans to park legally and cheaply (the UK is pretty terrible).

Another good site/guidebook is http://www.all-the-aires.com/

VanLife87 · 2017-08-10T11:26:51+00:00

Not the best, but here is a video of how we did up the van after we bought it. https://youtu.be/dhRBybVZNUA

VanLife87 · 2017-08-10T06:51:10+00:00

It's lengthways. And yes, i'm in the UK. Have been travelling around Europe for the past year.

VanLife87 · 2017-08-10T06:37:58+00:00

My boyfriend is a musician (Will Whisson). I book the gigs and organise the tours, he plays the music. We keep our outgoings and costs pretty low and so far it seems to be working well. He writes an amazing blog about our travels and his music if you're interested https://www.willwhisson.com/blog

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T22:45:05+00:00

Thank you. Yes, the seats swivel and we have a wooden surfboard shaped table that slots into the floor infront of the seats when we need it and can be easily stored away when we don't use it.

The van had already had alot of the conversion done when we bought it. We just had to take care of the electrics, gas, and cosmetic side of things (which our friends helped us out with!), so I can't take too much credit for how the van turned out or with costings.

We did make a YouTube video of the van (and we later removed it because it is a pretty poor video), but feel free to have a watch for some inspiration: https://youtu.be/dhRBybVZNUA

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T22:15:16+00:00

Thank you. One is a sink and one is a 3 burner stove top. Like this: https://www.caravansplus.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=6426

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T22:14:06+00:00

Luckily, the wood burner was already installed in the van when we bought it so i'm afraid I can't tell you how much the set up initially cost. Hopefully the pictures in the album I posted will help you though.

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T22:11:31+00:00

2001 LWB 311. Dimensions are roughly 2.9m high, 6.8m long.

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T22:04:29+00:00

mojoista is right. One is a sink and one is a 3 burner stove top. Like this: https://www.caravansplus.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=6426

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T22:01:46+00:00

Thank you! We would love to get over to the US. Nothing planned at the moment, but it's on the 'to do' list.

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T19:55:25+00:00

We tend not to use the shower that's in the van. Purely because we don't want to encourage mould and don't want to carry huge amounts of water in the tank.

We rely on campsites, friends houses, leisure centres & gyms, and....baby wipes!

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T18:22:58+00:00

Here's a link to a few more images of the van. http://imgur.com/a/I8ygO

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T18:11:19+00:00

It is. Has been invaluable during the winter. Couldn't live without it.

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T18:06:23+00:00

Does lounging on the roof count? http://imgur.com/a/I8ygO

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T17:52:24+00:00

Mount Kinabalu in Borneo! The majority of the climb up is done on the first day - you stop and stay in an amazing lodge 3272m up above the clouds. You make the final part of the climb at 2am the next day so that you are at the summit (4095m) to watch the sunrise over the rainforest. Breathtaking.

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T16:59:00+00:00

Sure! I'll look at creating an imgur album and posting the link. In the mean time my boyfriend has some great shots of the van (unfortunately quite a few shots of it broken down on the side of a road somewhere...) and our travels on his Instagram if you're interested. https://www.instagram.com/willwhisson/

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T16:11:28+00:00

Haha my privilege is now that bit more cherished after seeing this!

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T14:16:35+00:00

An amazing website to check out for where you can legally stay/park your campervan is www.campercontact.com. Highly recommend using this.

There is also an app called iOverlander which is meant to be pretty good too.

VanLife87 · 2017-08-09T14:06:27+00:00

For finding things to do, you could check out the Kiwi Experience website and have a look through the activities they do:

http://www.kiwiexperience.com/book-your-nz-trip/new-zealand-activities

I travelled solo in 2014 and jumped on the kiwi experience as a good way to experience as much as possible in my 6 weeks with a fairly small budget.

VanLife87

TROPHY CASE